Money well spent for Texas Tech: Huge offseason investment pays off big as Red Raiders stifle Utah

It’s not often an offseason roster overhaul is on obvious display, especially when it comes to the trenches. Those are the players who tend to get lost in the scrum, the space eaters in the middle who impact winning to a high degree but don’t pop off the television screen.

They leapt off the TV set for No. 17 Texas Tech on Saturday in a 34-10 win over No. 16 Utah.

The Red Raiders went into Salt Lake City to take on a Utah offense that had been a buzzsaw. Forty-five points and 290 rushing yards per game. Led by arguably the nation’s best offensive line and transfer quarterback Devin Dampier, the Utes were devastating in their efficiency. 

That is until they ran into Texas Tech’s front.

Utah finished the day with 101 yards rushing on 3.3 yards per attempt. Dampier, who had averaged 6 yards per carry going into the week, finished with just 27 yards on the ground. A Utes offense that rolls in 10-yard chunks — 21st nationally heading into the week of plays of 10-plus yards — didn’t manage a play of that length until the fourth quarter.

The Utes are built to bully people with draft picks scattered all across its o-line. Instead, Texas Tech dominated up front.

That’s exactly what the Red Raiders set out to do this offseason when they spent millions to upgrade their roster. No position saw more investment than along the defensive line, where the Red Raiders signed two of the top five edges in the portal (David Bailey, Romello Height) and a pair of all-conference defensive tackles in Lee Hunter from UCF and Skyler Gill-Howard from Northern Illinois.

Together that group cost millions. Literally millions. Easily $5-plus million between the four of them, per sources.

They were worth every penny as Texas Tech smothered an excellent offense on the road. It’s a huge change for a Red Raiders defense that just a year ago finished 81st nationally in yards allowed per play and 92nd in sacks per game.

Future NFL players like Bailey and Hunter change what’s possible for Texas Tech. The Red Raiders aren’t just an offense-first, points-happy Big 12 team with players up front like those two. They’re a legitimate playoff threat with defensive anchors up front that rival any team in the Power Four. 

It’d be disingenuous to give the defensive front all the credit for Texas Tech’s victory. Holdover linebacker Jacob Rodriguez flew around with 11 tackles, a forced fumble and an interception. A reworked secondary held Dampier to 4.3 yards per pass and forced two picks.

The offense, with three new starters up front on the o-line, carried the load with 173 yards rushing. And it’s former four-star recruit Will Hammond, a recruiting win for the Red Raiders two years ago, who came into the game for an injured Behren Morton and iced the game, flashing with 13-of-16 passing to go with 61 yards rushing and a pair of scores. Hammond was nearly flawless. 

Don’t forget about Tech’s two highly paid coordinator hires this offseason. Mack Leftwich’s offense put up 33 points on a Utah defense that had given up 25 points total through three games. Shiel Wood’s defense was no less effective.

Texas Tech saw an opportunity this offseason with the collision of name, image and likeness and revenue sharing. For one year, and one year only, the teams could double dip and field rosters worth well over the $20 million cap revenue sharing promised to provide.

And the Red Raiders, led by booster Cody Campbell, were willing to spend.

“Typically, in business anytime there’s any kind of chaos there’s an opportunity,” Campbell told 247Sports in January. “We tried to find a path toward capitalizing on that. It’s kind of the last opportunity we’ll have to make moves.

“We felt like we could compete, so let’s go do it.”

Saturday, Texas Tech showed it could do more than compete with one of the best teams in the country. It dominated, even in a game where adversity struck and the Red Raiders’ starting quarterback left early.

Rosters are built for moments like Saturday on Big Noon kickoff. 

Texas Tech showed its offseason investment more than paid off. It was money well spent in Lubbock.